Author's Notes: I do not own Doctor Who, the Duplicate Doctor, Rose, Donna, Madame Kovarian, etc. Thanks for the reads and the follows and the reviews. Enjoy this chapter and please let me know what you think.
John returned with Ella to Torchwood, finally arriving back at the Extraterrestrial Section.
"Is this where you work?," asked Ella as John put her behind his desk.
"Yes, it is."
"It's big."
Gwen walked over.
"Gwen, you remember Ella, don't you?"
"Uh, yeah..." She leaned in. "You brought a kid?"
"I couldn't leave her, trust me. She'll be fine. Ella, why don't you draw me a picture?"
"Of what?"
"Anything you like. I just have to go have grown-up talk, alright?"
"Alright."
John followed Gwen.
"I've got an idea," said John.
Harriet Jones had no idea what she was looking at when John Smith returned with three pictures.
"I don't understand," she said.
Bernard cleared his throat as he looked at the pictures. "I'm afraid I'm not quite following either."
"I'm trying to get a message to the man sending you these images." John held up the first. "A torch." He replaced it with the second. "A piece of wood."
"Torchwood?," said Harriet.
"You're giving away who we are?," asked Pete.
John looked at Pete. "Yes. I think it's the only way." He turned back to Harriet. "It's very important that you not attach to much meaning to the images, just try to get at their most basic level, otherwise human beings, your minds flit from one thing to the other, the message gets muddled."
He showed her the last picture.
"A compass," said Pete.
"It's the only way I could think of to ask where he is," said John. "This will be the hardest part of whatever you get back. Try to interpret it with as clear a head as possible."
Harriet nodded. "I'll try."
"Here's Johnny!," exclaimed Jack.
John entered the cell and the door slid shut behind him. John stood against the wall. "You're in a good mood."
Jack nodded. "No thanks to you. Why did you cut off my TV service?"
John ignored him and decided not to tell him about the sexual harassment complaints from his guards. "The Master in this universe. What's his story?"
"Why? Is that who is behind the thing with the President?"
"Yes, but not how you think. I think he's being held hostage."
Jack snorted. "That would be a new one."
"Meaning?"
"Look, the Master's crazy, I'll grant you that, but he's been one of the most successful in the war against the Silence."
"Then why is he in exile?"
Jack shrugged. "You know Time Lords. They don't always make a lot of sense. I didn't get much of an explanation before the seclusion began."
"Have you fought him?"
Jack nodded. "Yeah, sometimes. Then sometimes I fought with him."
"You know him, though. You can counter him."
"Are you asking for help?"
"Yeah. Too busy?"
Jack grinned. "I might be able to fit you in."
The door opened. It was the guard, a pudgy man in his forties named Scott.
Jack gave a wolf whistle. "Looking good, Scotty!"
"Sir," the guard said to John, "Miss Cooper called. The President's seen something."
John went and looked at Harriet's work.
"I know it's nonsensical, but it's all I'm getting," shrugged Harriet.
John looked at the drawing, a series of concentric circles with smaller circles lines up along them.
"It's not nonsensical," said John. "It's an element."
"An atom?," asked Harriet. "You'll have to excuse me, I haven't looked at a Chemistry text since I passed my A levels."
John counted up the circles. "Fifty-one! Antimony!"
"And what is antimony?," asked Gwen.
"You know, antimony," said John. "Don't you know what antimony is?"
"A picture of a potato and antimony. Is that what you want to go on?"
John followed Gwen back to her desk. She sat down at her computer. "Okay, I put in potato and antimony and all I've got are adverts for combine harvesters in India. This is a dead end. Suppose your friend doesn't want to be found?," asked Gwen.
"Why send out a distress call then? He could have taken over Harriet's mind, but he hasn't." He thought. "Fifty one."
"What about it?"
"That's the atomic number of antimony. He could have chosen anything and he chose to show us antimony. We asked for a locarion and we got potatoes and fifty-one."
"Fifty-one potatoes?"
"No, no, no..." John paced around the bullpen, a globe finally caught his eye. He started spinning it.
"John?," asked Gwen.
He ran his fingers across the lines of longitude and latitude.
Fifty-one met fifty-one in London.
"He's here," said John. "Fifty-one, fifty-one, potatoes. See what you turn up."
Skeptically, Gwen searched the computer. Her eyes widened as the Torchwood search engines turned up something. "An old produce warehouse in Tottenham."
John didn't like the more exciting, no, make that the more ludicrously dangerous gun-toting aspects of working with Torchwood. Want him to fight aliens? Fine. Cybermen splinter cell? Fine. Just don't make him carry a gun because he thought guns made people stupid and dangerous and that was a horrible combination.
So, he joined Gwen, Adeola and Jack in the Torchwood armory, refusing to take any sidearms, arguing with Gwen in the process until she finally said she would take an extra on his behalf. He put on the Kevlar and took a helmet, though he wasn't thrilled about it. He didn't want to imagine what getting shot in the head was all about and didn't want to find out firsthand.
He went back to the bullpen to check on Ella.
"I did lots of drawings," said Ella.
"I see that, they're wonderful," said John, picking them up to examine them.
"Which one would you like?," asked Ella. "Are you going to hang it?"
"I'll find a spot for it somewhere." He pointed. "Tell me about this one."
Ella pointed proudly. "That's you and Mummy and me and Josh is over there looking angry."
"What's that last thing?"
Ella smiled. "That's a pony."
John looked at her.
"I want a pony."
"Oh, do we, miss?"
John smiled and looked up to see Donna running towards them, Ianto hot on her heels.
"What happened?," she asked.
"Mummy," said Ella. She threw her arms around Donna.
"The school called me, I went to collect her," said John.
"Yeah, of course," said Donna. She rubbed Ella's back. "Mummy will take you home, okay?"
Just then, Gwen and Jack chose to enter in full riot gear.
"Oh, hello, Donna," said Gwen as if she wasn't carrying a machine gun.
Donna looked at Jack. "You sold me my wedding dress," she said in shock.
"Yeah, alterations should be ready any day."
Donna looked over to John. "What's going on?"
"He's a Time Agent."
Jack looked at Ianto. "Hello, handsome."
"Hi..." said Ianto skeptically.
"Why is he flirting with Ianto?," asked Donna.
John shook his head. "It's what he does."
"John, we have to be going," said Gwen.
"Going?," asked Donna. "Where are you going? With guns?"
"A moment, everyone."
Donna looked down at Ella. "Sweetheart, go with Ianto. Mummy will be right there."
Ianto took Ella's hand. John looked at Donna.
"Everything's going to be alright," said John.
"You never said you do this sort of thing."
"I don't, I don't carry a gun."
"Somehow I'm not reassured by that."
"I'll be home later. I promise."
She nodded. "Thanks for getting Ella. She adores you, you know." She leaned in and whispered. "You are going to be a great dad. So, don't get killed."
"Alright, team!," shouted Gwen. "Tactical briefing before we take the warehouse!"
Donna kissed John and patted him on the shoulder, sending him on his way back to the meeting. He watched as she left.
The Master looked at Rose exasperated. He couldn't believe his life had come to this point.
"Did you finish junior school?," he asked. "Did you finish Kindergarten? If I were on Gallifrey, I could have explained this to someone in nursery school by now!"
Rose crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "If Gallifrey's so great, why'd you leave it then?"
He scoffed. "Do you think I had a choice? Do you think I would choose to be confined to this pathetic little planet? Granted, some of your music is quite good, but the general level of idiocy I have had to deal with is enough to drive anyone mad."
"Just show me how to use the signaller."
The Master smiled. "Oh, but I have been, Rose Tyler. I have been."
"But I still don't understand what you're doing."
"Not surprised there," he scoffed.
Rose didn't have to think about that because he heard footsteps coming down the hall. She turned to see as Madame Kovarian came in the door flanked by security. She turned to look at the Master.
"What have you done?," she asked the Master angrily.
"Don't know what you mean."
Rose heard doors being knocked down and the sound of heavy boots. Then gunfire began.
"Oh, wait," said the Master, "do you mean how I built your signaller and used it to call for help and now Torchwood is coming in there with an army?"
"Torchwood?," asked Rose. "I can't be found here by Torchwood!"
"Torchwood is of no concern to us," said Kovarian.
"Yeah, but they didn't know you existed before and now they do. How are you going to function? Oh, for those keeping score at home, that's Time Lords, a billion and the Silence, naught!"
"We have to leave," said Kovarian. "Come along, Miss Tyler."
Rose looked at the Master.
"Guess you don't have time to escape and kill me," said the Master.
"I don't," said Kovarian. "Bring the signaller, Miss Tyler."
Rose picked the signaller up off the table and followed Madame Kovarian out the back door of the warehouse. She heard the Master's screams and the lights flickered.
John looked up at the flickering lights.
"Oh, potato smell," said Adeola, crouching by John. "That's come good."
"What was that?," asked Gwen from across the warehouse, where she was crouched behind some crates.
"Electrical interference," he said looking at the lights. "Just like Lucy Saxon described!"
"Cover me!," shouted Jack.
"Bloody hell," muttered Gwen and she stood up and gave Jack cover fire as he moved further in to take out more guards.
"I really don't like guns," said John.
"Clear!," said Jack.
"Clear!," confirmed one of the other Torchwood tactical people.
John stood up, he swore he could hear something. He started running towards the back.
"John! Wait! We haven't secured that part of the building!"
John ran to a small room, where he smelled something quite unsettling, like barbecue gone bad. He entered, gagging on the smell and saw the Master, lying on the floor, charred, smoke coming off him, looking more like a charcoal briquet than a man, only a glimmer of life left in his eyes.
"Master," he said breathlessly. He knelt down beside him.
The Master looked at him, he seemed to have a glint of recognition.
"Doctor..."
"No," said John, "I'm not-"
"Are we meeting out of order?" He heaved a deep sigh. "I hate meeting out of order... It's so... contrived."
His eyes shut.
"No!," said John. He knelt down beside him. "No, don't! Not again! Regenerate, you idiot!"
John felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Jack standing behind him.
"The Time Lords took away his remaining regenerations," said Jack. "I'm sorry."
John looked back at the Master's burnt form. He finally stood up and felt something in his gut, followed by Jack holding him as Gwen and Adeola shot their guns more.
"Ow," said John.
"John, you just got shot!," exclaimed Jack.
"Really? It's not so bad," he groaned, "Oh, wait there it is. Still, not the worst pain ever. Absorbing the Time Vortex, much worse."
John felt wobbly as Jack held him and all he could hear was reassurances that they had him, he would be fine and the pain was becoming unbearable.
And it all went black...